Chapter VII.--Of the Unction.
After this, when we have issued from the font, 1 we are thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction,--(a practice derived) from the old discipline, wherein on entering the priesthood, men were wont to be anointed with oil from a horn, ever since Aaron was anointed by Moses. 2 Whence Aaron is called "Christ," 3 from the "chrism," which is "the unction;" which, when made spiritual, furnished an appropriate name to the Lord, because He was "anointed" with the Spirit by God the Father; as written in the Acts: "For truly they were gathered together in this city 4 against Thy Holy Son whom Thou hast anointed." 5 Thus, too, in our case, the unction runs carnally, (i.e. on the body,) but profits spiritually; in the same way as the act of baptism itself too is carnal, in that we are plunged in water, but the effect spiritual, in that we are freed from sins.
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Lavacro. ↩
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See Ex. xxix. 7; Lev. viii. 12; Ps. cxxxiii. 2. ↩
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i.e. "Anointed." Aaron, or at least the priest, is actually so called in the LXX., in Lev. iv. 5, 16, ho hiereus ho Christos: as in the Hebrew it is the word whence Messiah is derived which is used. ↩
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Civitate. ↩
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Acts iv. 27. "In this city" (en te polei taute) is omitted in the English version; and the name 'Iesoun, "Jesus," is omitted by Tertullian. Compare Acts x. 38 and Lev. iv. 18 with Isa. lxi. 1 in the LXX. ↩
